Combining Central Control with Collective Adaptive Systems

Collective Adaptive Systems (CAS) achieve high resilience by providing distributed self-* properties through autonomous elements. While they are very beneficial for achieving high reliability, they are more difficult for dealing with targeted external inputs or ensuring globally optimal results. It is easier to achieve these properties with centralized approaches. Ideally, one could combine the benefits of collective adaptive systems with aspects of central control to achieve the best of both paradigms. While such combinations have already been shown in previous work, here, we aim at a systematic discussion of the range of approaches to integrate both control paradigms. As a result, we present a taxonomy of control action types, which describes how a central control unit can interact with a CAS to achieve the desired overall behavior, providing a first step towards CAS control patterns and identifying the involved trade-offs. Ideally, one could combine the benefits of collective adaptive systems with aspects of central control to achieve the best of both paradigms. While such combinations have already been shown in previous work, here, we aim at a systematic discussion of the range of approaches to integrate both control paradigms. As a result, we present a taxonomy of control action types, which describes how a central control unit can interact with a CAS to achieve the desired overall behavior, providing a first step towards CAS control patterns and identifying the involved trade-offs.